Hello all! So I am not one to make exorbitant claims or offer out money to internet strangers…but I am pretty sure that this post will save you twenty bucks. I have been a long-time user of Benefit Gimme Brow which is a tinted brow gel with a teeny tiny brush that gives your brows some color, hold, and deposits tiny fibers that help to fill them out a bit. I am pretty sure that Benefit makes some pretty bold claims about the product, but for me it has been my go-to “5 minute face” brow product, or what I use to top my brow pencil for a completed brow look.

I had heard some internet rumors that there was a three dollar dupe out there for it, and considering that the product is $24, I figured that it was absolutely worth a shot. In general, I tend to be a little skeptical when I hear about dupes because they often tend to just be not as great as the real thing….or worse, straight up bad. For all of your trouble buying cheap dupes of products, half the time you could have just afforded the actual product. But I digress…on to this dupe. Here is what the products look like:

L Essence, R Benefit

As you can see, the packaging is very similar as are the wands. Gold star for tiny wands that make it easy to get little brow hairs without getting product all over your face! Now for the swatches:

Essence, top. Benefit, bottom.

The Benefit Gimme Brow (shade: deep) is slightly more cool/gray-toned on hand swatch than the Essence Make Me Brow (shade: 02) which is a more “true” brown. I wouldn’t call it warm-toned, especially in person it definitely isn’t even close to auburn. It is just a very neutral, dark brown. The shade variation was only apparent on hand swatch vs. brow swatch. Both brands have a blonde/taupe-y shade available, though I do not own it. The Essence formula was slightly less “goopy/thick” than the Benefit formula as well. Now to try it on actual brow hairs!

Benefit:

Bare eyebrow

Benefit Gimme Brow applied

Benefit applied to both

Essence:

Bare brow

Essence Make Me Brow applied to 1 side

Essence Make Me Brow applied to both eyebrows

So I have plenty of eyebrow, my problem is with some straggly brow hairs and a few sparser patches. Both products did an okay job providing a light amount of hold to the hairs as well as a moderate amount of pigment. However, neither product will create the appearance of hair where there is none, despite the “fibers” that they deposit. They do fill out the area a bit, but I don’t find it to be a dramatic effect. For me, when I want my brows to look defined, or filled in, I go in with a brow pencil first (right now I am using the Anastasia Brow Definer in Medium Brown).

I had no problems with flaking or the product running off throughout the day; though, when I know I am going to be sweating a lot I typically top off whatever brow products I am using with a clear brow gel (my favorite is NYX Control Freak).

All in all, these products work exactly the same for me except that one is about $20 less. While I will certainly finish up my Benefit Gimme Brow because I do like it, I will probably move on to the Essence afterwords and stick with that from here on out.

You can find Essence products at Ulta and Target, where this product is $2.99.

I hope you found this helpful! Let me know what other dupes you have heard about 🙂